Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
It is early Sunday morning. My children are asleep. My wife sleeps with our youngest, Jonathan David, in the next room, a room we call "The Waiting Room," set aside for my students of English to use when they wait for classes.
I love waking up early. I get very little time to myself. I should call my mother, and I will, after writing this post. I am not very familiar with computer-related things, and I believe I have already "messed-up," with this one, as I gave the name of my web log the same as the title of "Sola Scriptura." In the registration process, I did not realize I would have another option to label the web log. I knew that I wanted "Sola Scriptura" for the name of the web log, but did not realize that there would be an option for including my own name. Live and learn.
In case I have no other opportunity to change the structure of my web log I'll introduce myself here. My name is "Walter Nathaniel Long III." I was born in Karamursel, Turkey. My father was a doctor, serving in the Air Force for two years as a volunteer (though, I think, he got paid). He always liked the idea of service. He died two years ago, in a small airplane crash over Hiddenite, North Carolina, 21st of June, 2007.
Although I had told him that I intended to study in SEBTS seminary upon my return to the States, his death fortified my resolve. His immediate response to my first comment that I was applying for study in the seminary was, "Well, we certainly need more good Baptist preachers in North Carolina."
I knew what he meant. He had told me about our home church, Taylorsville First Baptist, having to release from contract their preacher because he drank a beer at a youth function. I could not believe that happened. Well, I believed it, but I could not understand it, still can't. What does he think he is doing as a pastor, when he drinks beer at a youth function? I am 48, maybe older than he, and I don't mean to seem naive or old fashioned, but this is baffling.
What my father meant was that while we have plenty of pastors (at least one per church), we, North Carolinians, need more who are sincerely devoted to following Christ in every aspect of their lives.
Arrangements:
My wife and I have much to do to arrange for proper financing for seminary study, but I believe we will "sail through" that process without any problem. I have learned to become very thrifty these past few years, while raising an ever burgeoning family. We are up to five children now, and any more children will come via adoption, formal or otherwise. My father told me over the phone to adopt at least one South Korean girl, as he wanted to have a grandchild that looked like his daughter-in-law. He was always very fond of my wife, as they share similar values.
We hope to move to Wake Forest by October of next year, 2010, but much depends on our financial situation. If the Korean won remains relatively weak to the U.S. dollar, we may have to stay a bit longer in order to earn enough money to make the move, and retain and buttress the cushion we have saved up to get us through the period when I will be studying and neither I nor my wife will have a job.
My wife is on a trimester system at Shenandoah University, and she does one course per semester. She tried two once in her first term, and it was too much for her. We have five children, and as I work at home, teaching private lessons in English conversation, she must watch our children while I teach. Currently she is working on her sixth course. The school requires a total of eleven courses for the degree, and the final two must be taken in residence. Too, she cannot take a semester off, lest she lose her "half-price" deal, which is somewhat like a scholarship, but was available to all who began at the same time she did.
This sets a very strict limit on how long we can stay here in South Korea, and I like that. We hope to leave sooner, but financial constraints may keep us here. I do not mind borrowing money, and think that best, in order that we could go sooner, but my wife is very much opposed to that, and while we clearly settled on the day we met, 17 December 1996, our affirmation of her future role in our family as a helpmate, submitting in all things to me as the head of the family, I know that I must love her and Christ loved the Church, giving Himself up for Her. That is an infinite standard.
So as long as I can, I feel I need to meet her needs, including this fear of borrowing money. She was born in a developing country and was raised in a family with one parent Christian and the other a marginal Buddhist, her father, who was also an alcoholic. My father and mother were raised in similar economic conditions, born in 1932 and 1929 respectively. They were raised in the Great Depression, and throughout their formative years became inured to the necessity to use all resources wisely.
I am quite different, having been raised by upper middle class parents (Father a doctor, mother a high school French and English teacher, at Alexander Central High School, Taylorsville, N.C.), I enjoyed privileges that my parents and wife could only have dreamt of in their youth. Too, I did an MBA at Appalachian State University, and from those studies, and associations with my fellow students and professors, came away with a very comfortable attitude towards debt and investment. In a nutshell, I am most eager to borrow money, quit teaching in South Korea, and move to Wake Forest, where I can get on with a more intensive approach to my theological studies.
But I do not live in a vacuum. I realize I cannot push my wife like this. She becomes very unsettled about any financial risk. For her, a bird in the hand is worth any number in the bush. I am currently developing finalized rules for a board game which I created here in South Korea to use in my teaching. Young boys hated to study English, but their mothers forced them to study at my home, so they needed some kind of game which was of high interest to them, while requiring unlimited discussions regarding negotiations and strategy.
That acutely perceived need produced the game I made, and a friend of mine at NCSU is now working to create an internet version. He is a computer programmer. My wife was happy to agree to let him take 50% of all future revenue, rather than hire him to do the job at a fixed rate. She believes 50% of some pie-in-the-sky is fine, for us, and fine for him. Only, she becomes very uncomfortable when I buy two 14 dollar books on marketing and design of board games. So, I have learned that I need to respect her feelings and not push things like that, for her, anything related to cash going out of our home now, when she is not finished with her degree and has no job. She will never regret "losing" future income if it turns out that the game is very successful. She just doesn't want to see any money go out the door now, when we have very real needs. She is not greedy, in that sense, which is a thorough blessing.
Birthdays and Christmases have progressively become "cheaper affairs," at least from the materialistic point of view, but our photos are still rich with smiles and happy children bouncing about. I think we are better off for the discipline. And the past five years or so of me becoming increasingly more frugal have done much to make my wife feel loved. My father was always fond of the old Appalachian Mountain saying, "If Mamma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."
And I try to follow that as much as I can where it never takes me from my duties in following Scripture to a T. I realize I am the head of the family, and must take responsibility for all major decisions, but I must do so in a loving way. Sometimes that is like walking a fine line, a tightrope ... but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. And I love doing the right thing, finding it in my life, verifying it and continuing in it, with constant prayer for continued guidance. It beats any other kind of life. Age was necessary for me to come to this understanding.
Too, I know that the primary step to becoming a better student at SEBTS is not being there physically, though I yearn for that, and, rightly I think, expect it to bring a watershed of loving communion among fellowship with my peers, a bounty of love for my children and wife as well, I realize that the most important aspect is always right here in front of me, the Bible, and my texts. I have already bought several of the texts we use, even though I am taking only the first introductory course, which is just pass/fail: The Cooperative Program. We lack funds for me to take another course right now. So, if I want to feel "closer" to my SEBTS peers, the one thing I can surely do is devote ever more time and quality of focus to my studies. And I do indeed get that sense when I study, that I am part of a larger enterprise. It's a wonderful feeling.
My First Semester at SEBTS:
My study with SEBTS has not been an immediate or dramatic change in my life, but it is a very positive force, enacting steady change for the better, and I love it deeply. I believe God is moving me along well now, in a current of fine scholarship to enhance my preaching ability and my fundamental understanding of Holy Scripture.
The chapel messages which I hear online from SEBTS are wonderful, and I have watched a few of them twice. The second time is far better than the first time through. My memory is not so good at my age, so I am far more capable of retaining information on the second go-around. And already having familiarity with the message on a literal level, I am free to glean greater depth of meaning.
I wish our portal had the technological capability to "rewind," or go back in the chapel sermons online, by small interactions, or just a "tweak" of a back cursor, perhaps five seconds at a "click" or prompt. That would be a great study aid for me, as I do go back sometimes in order to write down a few lines that I want to keep with me, put to my heart verbatim. I write them in my calendar.
I have a 52 -page calendar with beautiful photos of South Korea. The larger format gives me space to write more. Still, I run out of space.
I look forwards to living in Wake Forest, and becoming a part of the Christian community there on campus. It is difficult to express how much I yearn for that. Given that I will be taking care of my children and doing two courses per semester, while my wife works as a teacher in a public school (according to our plan), I expect it will take me five years or more to finish my three-year degree. That does not bother me at all. When I was younger, five years seemed like a very long time. Now that kind of time flies by like water in a stream.
Rather, five years seems better than three, as it means I will have more time there to focus on my studies. I greatly prefer "over-studying," which is to have ample time available, working on fewer courses per semester. Too, I sort of need it, given the limitations of ageing. I know I need to read everything at least twice.
I suppose I had better close for now. I can hear my youngest son in the next room. He is 10 months old, just learning to stand, a bundle of joy. My wife was awake during the night, working on her master's degree in ESL (at Shenandoah University, Virginia). She will need to continue sleeping some more hours. I had better go get him now. Well, he's quiet now... maybe I'll have a bit more time. If he starts wailing again, I'll have to go.
Church:
Our church begins at 12:30 a.m., as we attend the English service at Joong-Moon Baptist Church in Taejeon. At 2:00 p.m. the pastor's wife, Patricia, teaches Sunday School. My children enjoy that very much, particularly Jordan and Ashley. She brings coloring pages for them to color while they listen to her read the Bible stories.
“Children’s Bibles”:
I read to my children every night, from "Children's Bibles." Of course, they are not really Bibles, per se, as they are only simplified renditions of the real text. But that is what we use predominantly. Lately, though, my two older boys have begun to call for the Bible to back up, or fill in more detail, stories we read about. That was the case with the death of Absalom, hanging in the tree. They were not satisfied with the cursory treatment of the topic in our simplified version. I will list the "Children's Bibles" which we use, and use Pink to indicate the top three for our family:
1. The Golden Children's Bible
(This is my favorite, by far, as it seems to hew best to the Bible, and though it's language level is a bit above the average of my children's abilities, it does not fail to retain their interest.)
2. The One Year Bible for Children by V. Gilbert Beers
(We use this one predominantly, as it's language ability level seems to hit the medium level of my children's current level.)
3. A Child's First Bible by Kenneth N. Taylor
(We used this text very much, when the children were younger.)
4. The Children's Bible in 365 Stories by Mary Batchelor
(For some reason, we just don't use this one much, though it seems fairly well written.)
5. God's Little Princess Devotional Bible by Sheila Walsh
( I got this for my daughter, and we use it only occasionally. It is kind of weak in catering to modern fashion, though it has a fine collection of hymns from the older tradition, which I enjoy. I am teaching my children hymns, all old style, as I find they stick closer to God, Jesus, and salvation. Plus, I appreciate music which has a beat, and that they do, far better than much of the wandering modern work I hear. I don't want to call it pure pablum, but I have difficulty remembering the lyrics when: A) they are not very focused on Christ, God the Father, or The Holy Spirit, and B) the music lacks a clear, resounding beat. Maybe I need to adapt, but I don't think so. I think it fine to remain "Just as I am.")
6. The First Step Bible by Mack Thomas
(So simple, so few words, that we do not use this one much.)
7. Jesus Loves Me Bible "Stories retold by Angela and Ken Abraham"
(This one we have read through several times, and greatly enjoyed. We connect with it easily, and I cannot say why it was so much better for us than the others at the most simple level. It is indeed one of the simpler ones, at a very elementary level of English. However, for that, it is rich in content, a master piece of work at getting the essence of the stories punched into a simple English format.)
It seems that we have too many "Children's Bibles," and we do, but as I could not peruse most of them before buying, shopping on Amazon, as it were, we bought a few relative "duds," and are stuck with them. I even hesitate to give the weaker texts to my Korean students of English, as I would only want to give them what I deem the best. For that, my wife would strongly oppose me buying a bunch of texts and having them shipped here to South Korea.
8. Children's Book of the Bible By Wallis Metts and Linda Causey
(This one raises an eyebrow in me every time. I wonder if an Atheist wrote it. This is really an unfair judgment, or "pre-judgment," as I know little about it, but every time we get it out, which has been rare, something rubs me the wrong way about it. To begin with, it is written like a history book from school, or an encyclopedia, with a lot of extra "historical" material thrown in. Oddly, that is why I bought it, thinking it would be a good supplement, but I like my "Bibles" straight, meaning even children's renditions of the real thing, for me, need to be told with empathy, from the narrator's point of view. For me, the narrator is our God, or the Holy Spirit, but not some human parser of phrases. Rather, if we are going to try to make stories available to children in easier English, I believe we have a duty to use the same method of telling the stories, and that is ensconced within story form, not abstracted and "explained" to the nth degree. I hope that makes sense. I am not an expert on "Children's Bibles," but we have read a lot of them, and settled on a few that seem to work much better for us. Interestingly, my children lean towards the same ones I do, though probably for different reasons. I believe that the ones which are more riveting may well be those which are more theologically sound. We'll see as I study more theology and gain in my understanding and ability to judge a text.)
9. Bible Wars and Weapons By Rick Osborne, Marnie Wooding, & Ed Strauss
(My boys like this one very much; however, I don't like reading it very often. The tone is too chatty and "cool." In fact, I change the wording as I read, to more normal English.)
In Christ,
Nathaniel
It is early Sunday morning. My children are asleep. My wife sleeps with our youngest, Jonathan David, in the next room, a room we call "The Waiting Room," set aside for my students of English to use when they wait for classes.
I love waking up early. I get very little time to myself. I should call my mother, and I will, after writing this post. I am not very familiar with computer-related things, and I believe I have already "messed-up," with this one, as I gave the name of my web log the same as the title of "Sola Scriptura." In the registration process, I did not realize I would have another option to label the web log. I knew that I wanted "Sola Scriptura" for the name of the web log, but did not realize that there would be an option for including my own name. Live and learn.
In case I have no other opportunity to change the structure of my web log I'll introduce myself here. My name is "Walter Nathaniel Long III." I was born in Karamursel, Turkey. My father was a doctor, serving in the Air Force for two years as a volunteer (though, I think, he got paid). He always liked the idea of service. He died two years ago, in a small airplane crash over Hiddenite, North Carolina, 21st of June, 2007.
Although I had told him that I intended to study in SEBTS seminary upon my return to the States, his death fortified my resolve. His immediate response to my first comment that I was applying for study in the seminary was, "Well, we certainly need more good Baptist preachers in North Carolina."
I knew what he meant. He had told me about our home church, Taylorsville First Baptist, having to release from contract their preacher because he drank a beer at a youth function. I could not believe that happened. Well, I believed it, but I could not understand it, still can't. What does he think he is doing as a pastor, when he drinks beer at a youth function? I am 48, maybe older than he, and I don't mean to seem naive or old fashioned, but this is baffling.
What my father meant was that while we have plenty of pastors (at least one per church), we, North Carolinians, need more who are sincerely devoted to following Christ in every aspect of their lives.
Arrangements:
My wife and I have much to do to arrange for proper financing for seminary study, but I believe we will "sail through" that process without any problem. I have learned to become very thrifty these past few years, while raising an ever burgeoning family. We are up to five children now, and any more children will come via adoption, formal or otherwise. My father told me over the phone to adopt at least one South Korean girl, as he wanted to have a grandchild that looked like his daughter-in-law. He was always very fond of my wife, as they share similar values.
We hope to move to Wake Forest by October of next year, 2010, but much depends on our financial situation. If the Korean won remains relatively weak to the U.S. dollar, we may have to stay a bit longer in order to earn enough money to make the move, and retain and buttress the cushion we have saved up to get us through the period when I will be studying and neither I nor my wife will have a job.
My wife is on a trimester system at Shenandoah University, and she does one course per semester. She tried two once in her first term, and it was too much for her. We have five children, and as I work at home, teaching private lessons in English conversation, she must watch our children while I teach. Currently she is working on her sixth course. The school requires a total of eleven courses for the degree, and the final two must be taken in residence. Too, she cannot take a semester off, lest she lose her "half-price" deal, which is somewhat like a scholarship, but was available to all who began at the same time she did.
This sets a very strict limit on how long we can stay here in South Korea, and I like that. We hope to leave sooner, but financial constraints may keep us here. I do not mind borrowing money, and think that best, in order that we could go sooner, but my wife is very much opposed to that, and while we clearly settled on the day we met, 17 December 1996, our affirmation of her future role in our family as a helpmate, submitting in all things to me as the head of the family, I know that I must love her and Christ loved the Church, giving Himself up for Her. That is an infinite standard.
So as long as I can, I feel I need to meet her needs, including this fear of borrowing money. She was born in a developing country and was raised in a family with one parent Christian and the other a marginal Buddhist, her father, who was also an alcoholic. My father and mother were raised in similar economic conditions, born in 1932 and 1929 respectively. They were raised in the Great Depression, and throughout their formative years became inured to the necessity to use all resources wisely.
I am quite different, having been raised by upper middle class parents (Father a doctor, mother a high school French and English teacher, at Alexander Central High School, Taylorsville, N.C.), I enjoyed privileges that my parents and wife could only have dreamt of in their youth. Too, I did an MBA at Appalachian State University, and from those studies, and associations with my fellow students and professors, came away with a very comfortable attitude towards debt and investment. In a nutshell, I am most eager to borrow money, quit teaching in South Korea, and move to Wake Forest, where I can get on with a more intensive approach to my theological studies.
But I do not live in a vacuum. I realize I cannot push my wife like this. She becomes very unsettled about any financial risk. For her, a bird in the hand is worth any number in the bush. I am currently developing finalized rules for a board game which I created here in South Korea to use in my teaching. Young boys hated to study English, but their mothers forced them to study at my home, so they needed some kind of game which was of high interest to them, while requiring unlimited discussions regarding negotiations and strategy.
That acutely perceived need produced the game I made, and a friend of mine at NCSU is now working to create an internet version. He is a computer programmer. My wife was happy to agree to let him take 50% of all future revenue, rather than hire him to do the job at a fixed rate. She believes 50% of some pie-in-the-sky is fine, for us, and fine for him. Only, she becomes very uncomfortable when I buy two 14 dollar books on marketing and design of board games. So, I have learned that I need to respect her feelings and not push things like that, for her, anything related to cash going out of our home now, when she is not finished with her degree and has no job. She will never regret "losing" future income if it turns out that the game is very successful. She just doesn't want to see any money go out the door now, when we have very real needs. She is not greedy, in that sense, which is a thorough blessing.
Birthdays and Christmases have progressively become "cheaper affairs," at least from the materialistic point of view, but our photos are still rich with smiles and happy children bouncing about. I think we are better off for the discipline. And the past five years or so of me becoming increasingly more frugal have done much to make my wife feel loved. My father was always fond of the old Appalachian Mountain saying, "If Mamma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."
And I try to follow that as much as I can where it never takes me from my duties in following Scripture to a T. I realize I am the head of the family, and must take responsibility for all major decisions, but I must do so in a loving way. Sometimes that is like walking a fine line, a tightrope ... but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. And I love doing the right thing, finding it in my life, verifying it and continuing in it, with constant prayer for continued guidance. It beats any other kind of life. Age was necessary for me to come to this understanding.
Too, I know that the primary step to becoming a better student at SEBTS is not being there physically, though I yearn for that, and, rightly I think, expect it to bring a watershed of loving communion among fellowship with my peers, a bounty of love for my children and wife as well, I realize that the most important aspect is always right here in front of me, the Bible, and my texts. I have already bought several of the texts we use, even though I am taking only the first introductory course, which is just pass/fail: The Cooperative Program. We lack funds for me to take another course right now. So, if I want to feel "closer" to my SEBTS peers, the one thing I can surely do is devote ever more time and quality of focus to my studies. And I do indeed get that sense when I study, that I am part of a larger enterprise. It's a wonderful feeling.
My First Semester at SEBTS:
My study with SEBTS has not been an immediate or dramatic change in my life, but it is a very positive force, enacting steady change for the better, and I love it deeply. I believe God is moving me along well now, in a current of fine scholarship to enhance my preaching ability and my fundamental understanding of Holy Scripture.
The chapel messages which I hear online from SEBTS are wonderful, and I have watched a few of them twice. The second time is far better than the first time through. My memory is not so good at my age, so I am far more capable of retaining information on the second go-around. And already having familiarity with the message on a literal level, I am free to glean greater depth of meaning.
I wish our portal had the technological capability to "rewind," or go back in the chapel sermons online, by small interactions, or just a "tweak" of a back cursor, perhaps five seconds at a "click" or prompt. That would be a great study aid for me, as I do go back sometimes in order to write down a few lines that I want to keep with me, put to my heart verbatim. I write them in my calendar.
I have a 52 -page calendar with beautiful photos of South Korea. The larger format gives me space to write more. Still, I run out of space.
I look forwards to living in Wake Forest, and becoming a part of the Christian community there on campus. It is difficult to express how much I yearn for that. Given that I will be taking care of my children and doing two courses per semester, while my wife works as a teacher in a public school (according to our plan), I expect it will take me five years or more to finish my three-year degree. That does not bother me at all. When I was younger, five years seemed like a very long time. Now that kind of time flies by like water in a stream.
Rather, five years seems better than three, as it means I will have more time there to focus on my studies. I greatly prefer "over-studying," which is to have ample time available, working on fewer courses per semester. Too, I sort of need it, given the limitations of ageing. I know I need to read everything at least twice.
I suppose I had better close for now. I can hear my youngest son in the next room. He is 10 months old, just learning to stand, a bundle of joy. My wife was awake during the night, working on her master's degree in ESL (at Shenandoah University, Virginia). She will need to continue sleeping some more hours. I had better go get him now. Well, he's quiet now... maybe I'll have a bit more time. If he starts wailing again, I'll have to go.
Church:
Our church begins at 12:30 a.m., as we attend the English service at Joong-Moon Baptist Church in Taejeon. At 2:00 p.m. the pastor's wife, Patricia, teaches Sunday School. My children enjoy that very much, particularly Jordan and Ashley. She brings coloring pages for them to color while they listen to her read the Bible stories.
“Children’s Bibles”:
I read to my children every night, from "Children's Bibles." Of course, they are not really Bibles, per se, as they are only simplified renditions of the real text. But that is what we use predominantly. Lately, though, my two older boys have begun to call for the Bible to back up, or fill in more detail, stories we read about. That was the case with the death of Absalom, hanging in the tree. They were not satisfied with the cursory treatment of the topic in our simplified version. I will list the "Children's Bibles" which we use, and use Pink to indicate the top three for our family:
1. The Golden Children's Bible
(This is my favorite, by far, as it seems to hew best to the Bible, and though it's language level is a bit above the average of my children's abilities, it does not fail to retain their interest.)
2. The One Year Bible for Children by V. Gilbert Beers
(We use this one predominantly, as it's language ability level seems to hit the medium level of my children's current level.)
3. A Child's First Bible by Kenneth N. Taylor
(We used this text very much, when the children were younger.)
4. The Children's Bible in 365 Stories by Mary Batchelor
(For some reason, we just don't use this one much, though it seems fairly well written.)
5. God's Little Princess Devotional Bible by Sheila Walsh
( I got this for my daughter, and we use it only occasionally. It is kind of weak in catering to modern fashion, though it has a fine collection of hymns from the older tradition, which I enjoy. I am teaching my children hymns, all old style, as I find they stick closer to God, Jesus, and salvation. Plus, I appreciate music which has a beat, and that they do, far better than much of the wandering modern work I hear. I don't want to call it pure pablum, but I have difficulty remembering the lyrics when: A) they are not very focused on Christ, God the Father, or The Holy Spirit, and B) the music lacks a clear, resounding beat. Maybe I need to adapt, but I don't think so. I think it fine to remain "Just as I am.")
6. The First Step Bible by Mack Thomas
(So simple, so few words, that we do not use this one much.)
7. Jesus Loves Me Bible "Stories retold by Angela and Ken Abraham"
(This one we have read through several times, and greatly enjoyed. We connect with it easily, and I cannot say why it was so much better for us than the others at the most simple level. It is indeed one of the simpler ones, at a very elementary level of English. However, for that, it is rich in content, a master piece of work at getting the essence of the stories punched into a simple English format.)
It seems that we have too many "Children's Bibles," and we do, but as I could not peruse most of them before buying, shopping on Amazon, as it were, we bought a few relative "duds," and are stuck with them. I even hesitate to give the weaker texts to my Korean students of English, as I would only want to give them what I deem the best. For that, my wife would strongly oppose me buying a bunch of texts and having them shipped here to South Korea.
8. Children's Book of the Bible By Wallis Metts and Linda Causey
(This one raises an eyebrow in me every time. I wonder if an Atheist wrote it. This is really an unfair judgment, or "pre-judgment," as I know little about it, but every time we get it out, which has been rare, something rubs me the wrong way about it. To begin with, it is written like a history book from school, or an encyclopedia, with a lot of extra "historical" material thrown in. Oddly, that is why I bought it, thinking it would be a good supplement, but I like my "Bibles" straight, meaning even children's renditions of the real thing, for me, need to be told with empathy, from the narrator's point of view. For me, the narrator is our God, or the Holy Spirit, but not some human parser of phrases. Rather, if we are going to try to make stories available to children in easier English, I believe we have a duty to use the same method of telling the stories, and that is ensconced within story form, not abstracted and "explained" to the nth degree. I hope that makes sense. I am not an expert on "Children's Bibles," but we have read a lot of them, and settled on a few that seem to work much better for us. Interestingly, my children lean towards the same ones I do, though probably for different reasons. I believe that the ones which are more riveting may well be those which are more theologically sound. We'll see as I study more theology and gain in my understanding and ability to judge a text.)
9. Bible Wars and Weapons By Rick Osborne, Marnie Wooding, & Ed Strauss
(My boys like this one very much; however, I don't like reading it very often. The tone is too chatty and "cool." In fact, I change the wording as I read, to more normal English.)
In Christ,
Nathaniel
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